7:30AM NY – 6:30 PM Mumbai Sensex closes 21 points lower, Reliance surges.

The Sensex on BSE finished 21.40 points lower Tuesday, or 0.14%, at 15,289.82.

The benchmark index opened 47 points higher and hit an intra-day high of 15,440.20 in morning deals. The intra-day low was 15,272.46, struck in the early afternoon.

The market-breadth turned negative in the latter part of trading. Out of 2,733 stocks traded on BSE, 977 advanced, 1,696 declined and 60 were unchanged. Of the 30 stocks in the Sensex, 11 advanced, while all the rest declined.

The turnover on BSE was Rs 6,023 crore, higher than Rs 5,392 crore on Monday. On NSE, the turnover was Rs 12,729 crore, higher than Rs 11,519 crore on Monday.

Economic news

Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, is likely sell a small car model in India. Small cars and compact hatchbacks account for three-fourths of the Indian market. Ford is targeting broadening its product range in India from sedans and sport-utility vehicles.

Trading highlights

Indiabulls Real Estate was the most active stock with a turnover of Rs 403.60 crore followed by Indiabulls and DLF.

Advancers of the Day

The process of infrastructure boom lifted cement stocks. Cement major Ambuja Cement advanced 3.1% to Rs 137 and was the best performer on BSE. Other cement stocks also gained. JK Cement was up 1% to Rs 156, Birla Corporation added 0.9% to Rs 294 and Madras Cement advanced 1.2% to Rs 3,540.

Index heavy Reliance Industries surged to a record high of Rs 1,834 on reports it had made a gas discovery in the Cauvery basin. It settled 2.9% higher to Rs 1,827.

IT stocks bounced back, led by strong results from TCS. TCS jumped 2.4% to Rs 1,155. After market hours on Monday, TCS reported a 36% growth in net profit to Rs 1,202.93 crore in the first quarter ended June 2007 compared to Rs 882.66 crore in the first quarter of June 2006. Satyam spurted 1.3% to Rs 488 and Wipro gained 1% to Rs 506.

Dr.Reddy''s rallied 1.8% to Rs 674, while ITC was up around 1% at Rs 156.

Decliners of the Day

Mahindra & Mahindra shed 2.6% to Rs 800. Other auto stocks which declined were Tata Motors, down 1.4% to Rs 749 and Bajaj Auto off 1.6% to Rs 2,219.

Reliance Communications dropped 2.3% to Rs 561. Reliance Communications, the second-largest wireless company in India, intends to raise investment by more than half this year to 160 billion rupees, or $4 billion, in order to close the gap with Bharti Airtel Ltd.

Metal stocks ended lower on selling pressure. Tata Steel lost 2% to Rs 681, Sterlite Industries slumped 4.5% to Rs 635, JSW Steel dipped 3.4% to Rs 697, and SAIL was off 3% to Rs 153.

BHEL and State Bank of India plunged 2% each to Rs 1,623, Rs 1,580, respectively. Bharti Airtel lost over 1.5% to Rs 863 and HDFC declined also 1.5% to Rs 1,965.

6:30AM European markets fall led lower by oil stocks, banks.

European markets were lower on Tuesday morning. National benchmarks declined in all of the 17 western European markets that were open except for Portugal. The U.K. FTSE 100 index was off 0.4% at 6,671.70, the German DAX index dipped 0.6% at 8,054.32 and the French CAC-40 index shed 0.3% at 6,106.19.